I will just note that I love how sketchy most of them look, perhaps because they’re fan zine, and low cost.
Last last project, I reflected that I wanted to work on researching more on one artist. But from the last project, I figure that perhaps what I intended was to research more on a certain style instead of a certain artist. So more like, how many different artists create a certain kind of style. I guess this is what an art direction is and perhaps this was what I was lacking for my previous projects?
But this time, I am thinking of adapting a more sketchy style and I think I have a clearer art direction in mind for research and development as compared to the previous projects.
So lo and behold, all the sketchiness……… Love!
I also quite enjoy these color schemes where images are in black and white and a single color makes the design pop / more eye catching. Where the color was placed is probably important to ensure the whole design is balanced and the color is not overwhelming.
I also quite dig the white + single color, two toned designs. Along with the sketches, they are simple but still eye catching.
Little comics that I could perhaps consider?
^ This reminds me of church windows and Art Nouveau…? Which could be a possible style to explore as well.
Which is super pretty, like how modern art and vintage art are combined to come up with something so beautiful. I also love their use of colors. It also reminds me of works of some artist that I have been following:
But anyway, to be real, first of all, I don’t think I have the capacity to be able to illustrate this well. Second of all, I will probably need a bit of time even if I could. Third of all, if a zine is supposedly produced low cost, then I would much rather not do anything like that.
Perhaps I could explore some sketches with elements of Art Noveau? Like the thick lines and colors.
But okay, back to sketchy zines I’ve sieved out…
A simple flap.
I like the colors, the weirdness, the distressed look, and overlaying.
Interesting way of using different paper and sizes to overlap. It’s almost as if saying, Berlin is made out of these things, together.
Perhaps I could do something similar that conveys, Kranji is made out of all these things. And have each of this thing color coded. For some reason the Windows logo came to mind.
I like this thing which i call ‘color offset’ where the color doesn’t go right into the lines but instead leave white shadows and exceed the line. It seems to give a more loose and sketchy effect and the whites convey highlights
That wasn’t sketchy, but I liked the color scheme.
Very sketchy like a kid’s drawing, and I love how there are still patterns involved. The sketchiness also seems to invoke a very textured feel even though the background is solid in color. The color scheme used is also quite outstanding.
Love this hole.
The following design is clearly graphical, but I really like the color schemes and the patterns. The colors explode and combine well together, is eye catching but not starking. The designs are also very readable and outstanding from far and I would imagine this to be important for a zine. Perhaps they are something I can explore doing in a sketchy style – which seems to be quite popular nowadays.
Another white + color two toned design. But I feel like this one is much bolder and in your face. Whereas the designs above are gentler.
With this, I think I can break out to research on other things. The stuff with the same sketchy vibes, but in different mediums and not just on zines.
Concluding, these are some ideas that I could perhaps try exploring:
Black & White + 1 Color
Sketchy Style – related to the rural vibes of Kranji
Watercolor
Print out texture / patterns on paper and draw over
Paint acrylic wash (Graham Smith?? – To be researched)
Ink/Oil/Soap BG
A really clean and basic layout. Totally not in line with the sketchy vibes, but perhaps combining both might give an interesting outcome? Or maybe not?
Stack stack stack, overlay here, overlay there. I envision that something like this could work. It’s like a neat, but messy layout. In the layout for this, the text are flushed to the left, which gives it a certain sense of formality and is easy to read. There’s also a lot of breathing space.
Ok that’s quite my vibes. The same black and white + one color. But the difference in this one is probably the fact that the muted orange are mostly blocks. They help fill up negative spaces and that feels like it makes the pages more interesting. The layout for these spreads are very spaced out and there seems to be quite a lot of centralised text.
Mmmm delicious sketchiness. The text is nicely balanced by the drawing of the hand.
So far, the layout seen everywhere seems very neat. Almost too neat. It is probably a trend that is going around and everything looks sort of similar from fonts to the layout. Clean and neat.
So I took a turn and searched “Bold Layout” instead, and this design caught my eye:
It reminds me of David Carson’s work. I particularly like how the text are rotated here and there. They fill negative spaces in an interesting way. I also wonder if this could be an element that I can introduce to promote interactivity with my audience? Or would it just be an annoyance?
I should probably also do a throwback to David Carson for this zine. Which reminds me, art direction wise, other than being sketchy, perhaps I should be considering more, like, do I want to be more experimental? More abstract? More kid like? Perhaps I could experiment with various styles and come back to it again.
AhhhhhhhhHH Colors of neon highlighters!!! Much more nicely executed.
This is cool. I like how it sometimes break the usual ‘rules’ of layouts. Like in the third image where the text are rotated. Despite the bold and energetic design, the designer also made sure that the text is properly placed to be eligible. I like how crazy but neat this is.
This is cute, I like the little details like the flag on the top right corner that probably states the country of the spreads.
Clean, and a lot of space. Probably more useful for stuff with a lot of photographs.
There’s so many to go through but i think layout is important for me to explore on my own, especially after deciding on the content / amount of content that I would like to include.
Now, Typography:
Distorted text that I can’t read
Useful infographics that probably everyone else saw:
There is still much to be done but that is all for now!
Some actionables
– Find other sketchy styles that’s not zines.
– Start experimenting and sketching
– Perhaps can try and sketch on different printed textures
– Come up with a plan for layout
Hellooooo so I went and visit the Kranji farms today!
It was a nice and nostalgic visit as I’ve always went to the farms when I was a kid.
I have a lot of pictures, but more importantly… I picked up a very informative pamphlet when I was there.
And maybe because it was a weekday, I wasn’t on any tours, and I’ve been to the farms quite a bit, the farm trip wasn’t as exciting as I thought it would be. Most of the farms were opened, but empty, it was a lot of just alighting, talking a walk and then on to the next stop. It was quite repetitive, especially since the produce of some farms were the same.
seconds before shit got real
To summarise this visit anyway:
There was a young goat’in that escaped it’s cages and was so happily prancing around. A girl was crying so hard in her boyfriend’s arms when the goat jumped on her. Apparently this goat figured out how to escape and always does it.
seconds before shit got real
It was really nothing much but a cute experience! The owner of Hay dairies was really friendly too and even suggested a route for us to visit the farms!
Not sure issit my eyes blur or, part of the Arapaima’s bodies are pink?! Color combi on point even though it looks dull at first glance.
Also never really saw koi fishes this big and fat. They legit are big.
Grow-your-own-‘shrooms. They sell this. It’s cool. Also, the uncle at this Kin Yan Agrotech is hiring full time promoters so hit him up if there’s anybody interested.
This Nyee Phoe Gardenasia place actually very nice!
Went to a total of seven farms today and it took lesser time than i expected!
So..
Since there’s already such an informative pamphlet and websites and from a short survey with friends, I thought I would work on the War Series instead, focusing on the War Memorial and sthuff.
I feel like I have a better takeaway from the war memorial visit and it’s quite a shame that I didn’t get to visit the abandoned army barracks and Neo Tiew estates to complete my war series.
Since i’m doing it on war, it is probably less probable that I will be embarking on the sketchy comic style as mentioned in the last post.
Perhaps, I will be taking reference to this old design that I have done before:
Will start with compiling the information that I want to present and start drafting some compositions for the infographic!
Here’s my ongoing Pinterest board for infographic styles / helpful guides: https://www.pinterest.com/awkwardst/2d2-project-2/
I am also thinking about the possibility to do a sketchy styled infographic, as inspired by Megan Nicole Dong‘s comical sketches:
Also came across this on one of my Pinterest boards and I kinda liked it. It is also a possibility to refer to the color scheme.
styleshack.com
shantisparrow.com
theendearingdesigner.com
Or maybe include some vintage logo designs to lure the hipsters and convey the spirit of Singapore’s heritage?
This is just a preliminary research, will do more as I venture into doing some draft compositions after my farm visit!
But as I scroll through these countless infographics with my tired mind, I found that though most of them were visually attractive, it’s hard for me to focus / find something I was interested in to click and read. Perhaps it was because I was tired, or perhaps it’s because of the information overload. Because it’s such an in thing now, there’s so many of them and everything somehow looks the similar (flat graphics, similar fonts?). Maybe it’s like David Carson said, since resources are so readily available on the net, a lot of designs look similar. Then again, things just seem to go with the trend nowadays.
Currently, I’m think it’s an idea to do accompanying short derpy comics to tell a story of the information I want to convey, in hopes that it will be more memorable and stand out from all the data and infographic that are being presented.
This infographic below might be a good guide for a more comic-layout
Also, love the look on this one:
Overall, I think I quite enjoy the Blue / Orange / Pink color scheme. As well as the Japanese earthquake infographic’s Yellow and dark blue color scheme.
With the sun shining, clouds suitably fluffy and temperature at a lovely 27 degrees celsius, Shi Teng does a sit up, got off bed, and sets off on a lone adventure to a less explored neighbourhood named Kranji.
Now, I wasn’t really sure if the temperature was 27 degrees celsius but the weather did seem pretty fine when I finally got outside.
Pre-exploration, I did two rounds of research.
The first round being a really basic one and this is what Wikipedia taught me:
Kranji was named after a tree (which is now close to extinction)
It is in the Northwest of Singapore
It’s an industrial area with lots of standalone properties
Some history
It used to have the railway
And a military camp
Now it has a war memorial
Some Highlights
Kranji Racecourse
Kranji Resevoir
Kranji Marshes
Bollywood Veggies
Kranji Countryside association
I guess Kranji has quite a lot to offer! Definitely more than what I knew.
Through a secondary round of more in-depth research, I classified Kranji into a few main areas, namely:
Kranji Turfclub
Kranji Countryside (Farms)
Kranji War Memorial (Military Barracks, WWII Landing Sites)
Kranji Resevoir & Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and after exploring, why not add in…
Kranji Industrial area and heavy vehicles because that’s really one of the things Kranji has to offer.
1. Kranji Turfclub
This was reasonably interesting. I thought this was an activity that was something different to do in Singapore. The tickets were cheap and the Grandstand seemed to have quite a bit to offer, like four different venues to watch the race.
I was so ready to go down and catch a live race myself (and maybe even place a few bets), after all it’s something that I’ve never done and probably never will, until this project! Buttttt… First unfortunately, races are only held on selected Fridays, Sundays and public holidays (It was a Thursday when I explored Kranji). Second unfortunately, I found a Trip Advisor page, which had quite a fair bit of reviews, including a few bad ones that discouraged me from visiting the site alone.
(I mean… it makes it even more exciting and interesting to visit right but Joy said not to engage ourselves in dubious activities so I shalt not.)
One day, one day, I will catch some horse races.
Other related websites:
https://www.stc-ridingcentre.com/
2. Kranji Countryside
I was really quite intrigued by all the information online about the farms. There was a whole website called Kranji Countryside and a few Straits Times articles, one of which that mentioned Kranji Farms getting recognised as a tourist spot. I thought that was really cool, it was something special, something that was about the heritage of Singapore that was not about the bustling city life or trips to the museum. There was also an article that mentioned the uncertainty of Kranji farmland’s future as many of the farmland leases are ending soon.
I was really looking forward to attend some tours that would bring me around the Kranji farms. Unfortunately, tours are mostly catered to groups and visits would require an advanced booking.
Or maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, because I came across this character called Uncle William, the official tour guide to Kranji Farms and was quite bent on attending one of his tours. It wasn’t difficult to look harder as there were several mentions of him, eventually I came across the Farmart website which included a detailed PDF of his farm tour program, and unfortunately he only hosted group tours.
I emailed him yesterday and only got an invite to the upcoming Farmers’ Market where he was giving a talk about Chickens and Eggs. He’s probably the man who has the answer to the question, “Did the chicken or egg come first?”
I’ve heard about the Farmers’ Market pre-project 2 but unfortunately, according to their Facebook page, the next one will be held on 11th March, which is a week after our research due date.
And apparently, there is a sgfarming wordpress (which I haven’t explored much) which has an article about the 2014 Farmers’ Market.
On the Kranji Countryside webpage, I also read about the Kranji Heritage Trail and decided that maybe I could base my exploration mainly on this trail. I thought about doing the entire trail, but was worried that I probably won’t have enough time or balls to do it alone.
My initial plan was to take the Kranji Express Bus and see how much I could explore, and possibly document the time and journey. But not all plans work out… Reading a few other blogs, they did suggest that personal transport would be better. Also, there wouldn’t be enough time for me to fully explore along the catered bus by the time I left for Kranji.
3. Kranji War Series I read some blogs that told me more about these areas of Kranji. In this particular blog, there were a lot of pictures about the Kranji barracks. They looked creepy and not like a place I was going to visit alone. I am also unsure if access to the public was allowed.
(I also read somewhere that the en-bloc-ed Neo Tiew estate became a training area for SAF but lost the link. On a second search, the pictures on http://joyloh.com/blog/?p=3342 ; https://remembersingapore.org/neo-tiew-estate/ makes it seem like an interesting place to visit, with friends!)
But I knew I was going to the Kranji War Memorial. A friend also told me pre-visit that SAF once brought him on a field trip there.
Disclaimer: Being the uncultured 22 year old girl that I am, I don’t remember much or have much knowledge about the war.
I arrived and had to stop to take a picture because it already looked so beautiful!
Was quite surprised that this was an actual thing you could open and there were actual books inside for visitors, but eventually realised that it made sense.
Some vandalism, or maybe a correction. Not sure if it was a typo, or was if Mr Boucher was really a baby then.
There was also a visitor’s book where visitors from all over the world signed and left messages.
^ Information that could be helpful if I was going to do my infographic on the war.
Okay, from this point onwards, I wasn’t sure if it was disrespectful to blatantly take pictures, especially because there were a lot of ang mohs around and I didn’t want to be an uncultured Singaporean brat. So I refrained from taking pictures, but took some anyway!
A faraway juxtaposition of the serene graves vs bustling city life.
The graves were indeed really very well maintained and nicely engraved and there were so many pretty flowers along them.
Fresh flowers I later found out was because of Total Defence day, it all made sense.
The flowers came from everywhere, from visitors, SAF, and some overseas government. I’ve noticed flowers placed on specific graves too.
Walls of engraved names.
I found these numbers below and realised they were counting columns.
In total, there were 472 columns.
Another juxtapositions. There were several walls like these which had words that described the soldier’s death, such as in captivity or in fire, or if they were transferred graves. It made sense that they were doing their best to really honour and name each and every soldier.
The site is part of the Kranji Heritage trail.
I was about to leave when I spotted these two information plagues around the carpark.
^ Some information to read.
When I went to take these pictures, I also happened to see an isolated grave on the opposite side of the carpark. It turned out to be the grave of former Singapore president (1971 – 1981), Benjamin Henry Sheares.
It was really quite an experience for me to visit this site alone. I had the time to breath in the peace, and was able to take my time to walk around and hear the birds chirp. It was a really beautiful and serene hill tucked away in the city, an aptly landscaped ground to honour the brave souls and their families.
I’ve read somewhere before my visit that the memorial was maintained by 5 foreign workers. Upon my visit, I saw some sheds and a gardening area with pots of plants. Also, around the area seemed to be some landed housing estates – but I am not really sure what they are.
It was quite emotional to think about the scale of the war and how much it affected the lives of the people then, and the people now. I was quite surprised that there were so many countries, nationalities and religions involved. Some of them I noticed were names of Singhs, there were also notably soldiers from Hong Kong, New Zealand etc.
The war also notably affected the lives of the people around the soldiers, there were assigned areas for the graves of the families. These graves were more customised. I’ve also realised a set of different graves and from the inscriptions, found out that they belonged to the Gurkhas. The graves were of a darker tint and were more rugged looking.
When I was there, most of the visitors were westerners, maybe it was because most of the names on the graves belonged to westerners too? A pair of old couple particularly caught my attention as they stayed on the same spot for a really long time. They were there before I reached and when I left, they were still there. Perhaps they were looking for a name? I didn’t speak to them at all (because I am a shy wuss) and I didn’t want to disturb their peace. Despite knowing how nice foreigners can be about small talk, it just didn’t seem like a place nor occasion to talk to them.
I also wondered if it was right for me to know so little about the war.
4. Kranji Reservoir and Sugei Buloh Wetland Reserve Next, I headed to Kranji Reservoir. I got lost for a bit because I probably entered the wrong address the first time, but through my detour I noticed the amount of industrial areas around and thought that it was a possibility to do an infographic about all of them, (if it wasn’t boring).
Never knew there were “Fishing Grounds” in Singapore in an area not along the beach. All I’ve encountered were “no fishing” signs.
Not sure why the water looked like this….
Why did Shi Teng cross the road? To get to the Kranji Battle site! It was just like a really small, unkempt park.
But wait, what?! FORREALLLL???? But no worries, thanks to this signboard, I ain’t fear no crocodile encounters! Unfortunately I didn’t get to encounter during my short stay that came to feel a bit eerie. There was also a random uncle sleeping by the crocodile sign board so I left after the pictures as there seemed to be nothing much anyway.
(Also came to my mind that I could do infographics on the strange animal spottings in Singapore. Like crocodiles)
I was about to leave, again, when I saw this really strange out-of-nowhere bus stop in the carpark. And there were quite a bit of ‘normal’ citizens there. They weren’t random uncles, truck drivers, or construction workers. They were people who wouldn’t be (or weren’t dressed to be) in an industrial area like this. I was wondering where they came from until I found out that the Sungei Buloh visitor centre was a 2 minutes walk away from the carpark I was at.
Mystery solved. I guess it was also like an interchange for bus 925?
I proceeded to cross the road, this time to get to the Wetland Reserve’s visitor centre! Idk why but OSS uploaded my pictures in reverse chronological order.
So we start off with some photos of wild puppers and gloomy skies. And as we can see, when I entered, it was sunny and slightly hot.
And yes, when the cicadas kept quiet, it was slightly late. I guess I learnt that they kept quiet only right before it rained. Or maybe the rain clouds came too fast. At the visitor center, were a few labs that I guessed were for things like student visits. There was also some galleries around. There were a bunch of information trials and basically, the whole reserve was information overload.
There were some information I considered I could do, like about barnacles (which i only knew as a curse word used in Spongebob), or about the migration of birds and how the stars guided them. With a shiny title like “May the stars guide you home”.
But then again, these information were so readily available in the marshes and it would be so much cooler for people to visit it themselves.
There’s also a rather informative NPark website about the marshes. Once again, I unfortunately would miss all the guided tours. #nofate
Concluding this post, I have decided to do my infographic on either the Kranji War series or Kranji Countryside.
Am currently leaning towards the countryside but it’s unfortunate that I haven’t visited the area! Similarly, I haven’t visited the military barracks / WWII landing site for the war series.
Hopefully I will get to visit the farms sometime soon!
My four jobs: Coursing River, Great Typhoon, Raging Fire, Mysterious Moon
Since the last consultation, it has been concluded that I needed to tie my visuals more to the message I was trying to convey.
I started off with re-looking at my message, “Women can be these things too” and rephrased it to become “It doesn’t matter man or women” which I found resonated with my neutral stand better as I wouldn’t consider myself a passionate feminist, and gender roles is such a grey area to me.
From here, it was coming up with new designs that would convey the message.
With my previous female-centric stand, I found it tricky to not fall into the confines of gender bias as I thought usage of colours or body forms stereotyped to genders would become a oxymoron with my message.
I preferred the neutral stand as the usage of colours would simply be a representation of the genders instead of a stereotype. Typing “feminist” into the search bar and seeing a variety of designs being pink also helped realign my thinking.
In the above designs, pink was used as colour to help convey the message better and I found that designs with the pink help the feminist message stand out better as compared to the designs in other colours.
Instead of a ‘stereotype’, colours can be used as a signifier, a semiotic mechanic to drive the message as blue and pink could be considered indexes that connects the message – pink commonly represents females and blue commonly represent males.
Secondary Research (Brainstorming has been documented in sketchbook)
Saw this during research / brainstorming for the visuals and thought it might be helpful
Let’s get down to business ?
Relooked at the Mulan video for some inspiration!
Like most animations, Mulan’s face is rather minimal and I think that influenced my style.
Also, I really like artist, Henn Kimm’s minimal lines and colours.
I love how despite the restricted (but strong and contrasting) flat, solid colours and clean lines, she could deliver her illustrations minimalistic-cally. I also like how clean and solid the backgrounds look with no textures, just one flat color.
Redesigning:
After brainstorming, I came to using faces of a man and a woman. They provide a focal point, and are straightforward, effective and obvious enough to carry my message, rather than using hands or the whole body which could end up in things being unnecessarily complex.
I started off with sketching some composition ideas, and then coming up with the faces, the new main attraction of this series, tracing the carefully deliberated and handpicked side views of a male and female faces.
I traced the images instead of drawing them from scratch because I felt like the forms and contours matter. Despite the fact that there are some very pretty Korean boys, men generally have different facial features and structures as compared to women.
I snuck in the differences using minute variations in angles in the brows, lips and blusher.
I thought thick and straight eyebrows would be cute and would stand out, instead of basic and legit eyebrows, since they’re stylised drawings anyway. I feel like they complementing the equally outstanding blushers and help make the design more stylised. Plus, Mulan has thick eyebrows too. (And as everybody already know, thick eyebrows are in trend)
I love including blushers in my works. They’re cute. Especially as seen in local artist Lyyeow’s works:
From here, I guess it is pretty obvious that the overall style for these pieces would be more graphical and stylised – fitting to my major in animation, as well as the origins of the concept, an animation feature.
Drew blobs of water for hair because the imagery of ‘swift as a coursing river’ reminds me of hair gloriously flowing in the water.
(It always does, just like in this piece from my Ego project:)
But I used blobby hair this time to match the flat, vector look, and also…
Since the last update, I have decided that the lasso tool is my go-to for this series. It is a secretly powerful tool that if often overlooked as I try very hard to digitally draw smooth flowing shapes. I first came across it while I was watching one of Feng Zhu’s (a concept artist) digital painting videos. Look at what it can achieve!!! It is a secret weapon and I was going to try and make use of it more.
In the compositions above, the type wasn’t working out yet, and the background was still messy – I received some suggestions to try using the bubbles to spell out my name.
Also considered using different kind of foam / bubbles but nope, just nope.
Though there is rather rhythmic movements in the above composition (it was intended for the bubbles to look like it was flowing down the hair to suggest action), I thought the negative space on the right side seemed awkward so I tried to switch it around.
Adjusted the layout, then tried to remove some elements of the original designs (Brush strokes in the background and testing out different colour schemes and opacity).
Eventually the brush strokes were removed to achieve a flatter and cleaner look, taking into consideration that brush strokes /textures might not fit in the other designs as the they were placed initially to help mimic the gradience of water.
So there, swift as a coursing river, the swiftness is demonstrated in the flowing hair, bubbles and blobs of water in the background.
Originally, I wasn’t going to use dark grey for my all the background, but figured that it was fitting as it helped make the faces stand out as I was working on the Typhoon design:
In the first draft, I used Green and Blues because that’s how a typhoon is seen from outer space (as researched last post). I also thought that the contours formed by the faces made the middle section look like a continent.
But the colours didn’t work out and black worked much better, especially in promoting a style and unity between the four pieces and breaking the predictability of the colours used for my four jobs.
Tried to use the concept of random neon colours (from the previous designs) again but it didn’t seem to work out. Then, I drew my name instead of using a commercial font and attempted for it to look like it was being sucked into the middle.
Played around with different ways to signify the typhoon as I thought the first one really looked quite like people smoking.
Force of a great typhoon, straightforwardly signified by the circle of people around, as typhoons are just rotating and rotating and rotating and rotating….
Using the idea of covered fonts form my previous designs, here’s mysterious moon.
I didn’t mention in the previous post, but how the name was hidden (in this version) was inspired by the moon phases.
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
I didn’t realise, but feedback said that it looks like solar eclipses!
The side profiles were fitting to dark side of the moon. Even more so because the colour scheme is near black and the type being backed by shadows. Researching mysterious men/women, I came across these pieces which stood out to me:
https-//www.pinterest.com/jealouscurator/.jpg
Wellllll I couldn’t smudge a minimalistic illustration like this and it wouldn’t fit into the look and feel of the series, so the eyes were removed to help exude mysteriousness.
Lastly, raging fire was really quite challenging.
My attempts at taking elements from my previous designs like the other pieces were no good as it didn’t fit in with the other three visuals and they had too much red in them:
How to represent fire with faces????
I remembered that the sun is a ball of raging fire
So why not give it a shot:
Which didn’t work out. There are waaay to many faces and it doesn’t show any signs of a fire.
I looked at the three other visuals as a whole and came up with a composition for the faces that is different from the other pieces.
I also thought of using smoke and silhouettes to help signify fire. A raging fire would mean lots and lots of smoke.
Initially I collected this as a reference to write out my name:
But I wanted a flatter layout to resonate with the other designs.
Since there are some colours in the coursing river piece as compared to the other designs, I thought of similarly including colours in this piece to help balance the pieces out as a whole.
Tried different colour combinations and eventually decided to include the lines for the faces to help read them clearer and also harmonise more with the other pieces.
Still rather unhappy with the design, I explored with drawing my name differently, this time making use of Photoshop’s liquify tool.
Base drawing (before Liquify)
After Liquify and color changes / additions
How the name was drawn was inspired / referring to animation of flames that I have encountered before (while doing research on another project):
Also ended up using orange because it made that fact that this piece is about fire, obvious. Tried out other colours in the process and they just didn’t work out.
The GIF below also shows the process of trying to integrate the type more into the design. Within the composition, I also tried placing the name in different places but they didn’t work well. Eventually, I found that varying the opacity of the smoke in the background helped a lot. It also gave a better impression of a raging fire, or an impression of smoke in varying distances.
I also switched the male and female faces around so that in the combined presentation, the gender of the faces will mostly be alternated.
Reflection
Initially, I really found it a struggle to have to include a message within my visuals. It was tough for me and really something I thought I was quite bad at. In hindsight, I think it was a good struggle to have to have meaning in my design. After all, I came up with a message I thought was quite special, and I think the end product speaks.
I also found that in my end products, there was a sub message that really resonated with me. With both the faces of men and women, other than genders not playing a part, it could be seen as men and women working together, just like eventually in the video of the sound track. After all, they were all coming together to defeat the Huns, so why would genders matter as long as they are willing?
Because I am so neutral (or some say indecisive) person, more often than not I find myself not being able to pick a side, I often fall back onto the solution of people working together. I love it when people work well together. Half way through designing I realised this sub message in my designs and felt like it really worked out. Despite my works usually not being personal and being more general, I like how the end product was still mine in the end because of it’s neutral tonality and sub message about working together.
In last semester, I mostly tried to use traditional mediums and methods which were mostly very time consuming. Using a digital medium was in contrast much more effective. Butttt, I thought I should be more particular at the beginning especially if I was going to use the same illustration for all four pieces. Because I was not so particular then (I thought I was just testing compositions), I duplicated the illustrations into other designs though the strokes were uneven and not clean. I had to go back to each design and touch up afterwards.
Also, with the digital medium, it was convenient to explore minor tweaks but I think I might have fell into the trap of easily settling on a composition. My usual work process was – find something to start with (in this case the faces and my previous design), lay them around, find something good, and work on it. I thought I could really have explored more compositions by sketching first before diving in digitally. When I explore digitally, the compositions would usually differ much less.
Tying in with exploring more compositions, I would also like to build up a better habit of doing more research, especially according to specific artists instead of related words. When I get too excited, I tend to come up with my own ideas and work from there. I find that this results in limitations in my designs, especially since the visual library in my head can in no way compare to the multitude of resources and references, I can find out there. I could probably have pushed my research more, and earlier, instead of being too anxious and diving into test designs – which I ended up settling on (too) quickly. This was evident when I was stuck on my raging fire composition. By then, I was already more or less done with the other three designs and searching related words (like fire, fire typography) wasn’t able to help much. If I had researched more and explored more compositions in the beginning, maybe I could have come up with something better.
Additional research according to the style I was going for could have been more beneficial, though the research in the beginning did help as I was so inspired by David Carson. I really enjoyed his style and tried to use some of his methods, though eventually I veered away because of the change in design concept. Despite that, David Carson’s interview inspired me to be more personal about my designs, which I felt at least this pulled through because this series was something related to animation, and the concept and design were still things that were in my style. It feels/seems like something I would do, and I am happy with that, especially since I almost just gave up with my stand when people suggested that a female-centric message would be easier to convey.
So there, in this assignment, I overcame the great barrier of marrying the message with the visuals. I think the compositions could have been better, but I am happy with how the end product speaks, is united, and the main colour scheme.
For the homework of Week 1, we were tasked to conceptualise / research in our Visual Journal and decide on 4 jobs.
Also, we were to research on any of the following artists: Hannah Hock, DADA and Russian Constructivists, David Carson and some methods such as How to reconstruct; Using unconventional tools; 2D to 3D to 2D; Photomontage and Collage; Paper cut-outs and layering.
So, here’s my research!
Hannah Hock She is a German Dada artist and one of the pioneers of photomontage.The Dada art movement is that I’ve often heard of but never really got to understand what it is. Apparently, it started with the outbreak of World War 1, where “many Dadaists believed that the ‘reason’ and ‘logic’ of bourgeois capitalist society had led people into war”.
The movement “consisted of artists who rejected ideas of logic, reason and aestheticism dominant in modern capitalist society, instead expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works”. Unhappiness was portrayed with violence, war and nationalism by Dadaists.
For reference because this word kept appearing.
So, here are some of Hannah Hoch’s works:
Cut with the Kitchen Knife “Hoch’s title for this piece illustrates her critique of the “bloated and heavy handed” nature of the male dominated Weimer republic and German military.” https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/dada/hannah-hoch/cut-with-the-kitchen-knife/Hannah Hoch: Indian Dancer: From an Ethnographic Museum Hannah Höch (German, 1889–1978) https://unefemmefap.wordpress.com/feminist-artist/
Das schöne Mädchen [The Beautiful Girl] https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-hoch-das-schone-madchen-the-beautiful-girlOhne Titel (Aus einem ethnographischen Museum) https://www.artsy.net/artwork/hannah-hoch-ohne-titel-aus-einem-ethnographischen-museum
Researching on the above works, I read that Hannah Hoch often touched on gender issues. Perhaps this is why many of her artworks are expressed using the juxtaposition of body parts and machinery, to tie in to her feminist agenda.
At a glance, it seems like Hannah Hoch often used complementary colours, such as yellow and blue tinges. It could be related to the limitations or trends in printing technology during that era, but I feel like the contrast resonates with her message and juxtapositions. Juxtaposition and bizarre compositions are also often seen in her work. It feels like she is very daring in her expressions, many times making use of exaggeration.
David Carson“David Carson is an American graphic designer, art director and surfer” widely known for his “innovative magazine design and use of experimental typography”.
It is said that “In 1983, Carson started to experiment with graphic design and found himself immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of Southern California.”.
When he first started, David Carson was heavily influenced by Hans-Rudolf Lutz, one of his former teachers. Hans Rudolf Lutz was an experimental Swiss designer who, like David Carson, often experimented with typography.
David Carson spoke about his approach to design as “experimental, intuitive and personal”, and trying to “reinforce visually what is written, spoken or sung”. He aims to “connect with people on an emotional level”.
It seems to me like most of his designs are bold and telling. Striking and in your face. His layout designs also are also often breakthroughs of traditional layouts. I love this because it is always about doing something different. One memorable example of this would be the following picture:
As mentioned in his interview, it was a magazine cover that was designed with no cover lines because he felt that the photograph of Keith Richards’ says it all. It turned out to be the biggest selling issue. I also feel like this cover is exactly what David Carson described his design approach to be – experimental, intuitive and personal. Experimental being the risk taking to do something different. Personal and intuitive being how he knew the photograph spoke emotionally, like there was a really interesting story to tell. It is simple, direct and eye catching. I love hahaha.
As mentioned above, in the interview, he also spoke about how “growing up primarily in Southern California [gave him] a somewhat more experimental, liberal and open minded approach to design and life.” This goes to show the cultural impacts and how individuality is brought into design.
At this moment, it seems so empowering because it would mean each individual designer is capable of delivering their own unique designs according to their especial stories and footprints. Perhaps with this, I could be inspired to bring more individuality into my designs, something that is more me, something that speaks more about how I have been brought up. I have never really thought about it this way. More often than not, it was about what looks good, especially since I find that I struggle with abstract concepts.
David Carson is savage he put the whole article in dingbat because he thought it was boring and so ‘why not?’
Apparently the outcome of this page was due to something more ‘automatic’, he was working on a concept but saw that “there was somethign nice happening with the 4 single pages laying on [his] studio floor, as they were – so [he] used them in that way.”
I feel like David Carson’s work are very liberated and screams design freedom. I find that it is definitely a challenge to be able to have so much creative freedom, but at the same time ensure your design communicates to it’s audiences and have your clients approve it.
I have never really heard of David Carson before this but now I feel more inspired to break out of my design shell, to hop aboard a voyage to experiment more, break boundaries, be more flexible, chill out and less particular.
He mentioned that “[his] work uses very few software tricks, or even color. it’s about font choice, cropping and basic, often intuitive design decisions, ones that are appropriate for the client, audience, and myself.”
This paragraph is on pointe. I want to be more special.
When asked about online design resources’ influence on graphic design these days, David Carson said that “it’s made everything less experimental, less memorable, less unique and less effective. its homogenized the work overall and made it easier to forget, with less impact.” – This sounds true. A lot of designs nowadays follow trends, though they look good and receive well, it is less memorable. Once again, on the upcoming projects, I hope to be much more experimental than I was last semester.
Really no idea what the above posters mean (I think there might have been information too small to be seen in this resolution), but I think they look gooood. I love the use of the colors. I love the colors. It was done for Austin Institute for Graphic Awesomeness spring 2014 conference.
Love.
Speaking of unconventional design tools, recently we painted with our fingers and twigs in Foundation Drawing class and I really liked the outcome of my drawings:
OSS likes to rotate my pictures??
But i quite like the outcomes and it sounds out a possibility of expressing better with unconventional drawing tools.
A quick trip to Pinterest and I saw this: https://www.behance.net/gallery/3595975/Milky-Way
Drawing with milk!
Unconventional tools would probably remind everyone about the mark making nightmare. Anything can be used as an art tool, anything.
From 2D to 3D to 2D totally reminds me of Alexa Meade who does awesome stuff like these:
Which could be considered unconventional tools too?
She basically transforms the 3D world into a 2D painting, and then recapturing them into 2D photographs or films. It seems pretty epic to me because there’s a base 3D canvas to work on, as compared to a flat 2D canvas. It is innovative and at the same time could mean possibly easier workflow and extended possibilities.
There’s my research for Project 1 for now, will possibly do more research on methods while ideating!
A simple flap.
Interesting way of using different paper and sizes to overlap. It’s almost as if saying, Berlin is made out of these things, together.
It was just like a really small, unkempt park.
![Das schöne Mädchen [The Beautiful Girl]](https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/zvMffa3m-b45hujyM3j6BA/larger.jpg)
